But I’ve been involved in professional football all of my adult life and never once have I seen any evidence to support the theory that it’s even possible for a manager to lose his own dressing room. It’s not even a thing.

Also, he did a great job of keeping the club in the top flight last season and saved a lot of people’s jobs in the process. So, yes, I was sad when I heard the news the other day.

Motherwell manager Ian Baraclough was sacked this week

But to blame it all on him losing the dressing room? I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave me out of that one.

There’s a bottom line that you have to accept when you chose to step into the dugout and it should be a golden rule for any football manager. Ultimately, success or failure will come down to one thing only, the decisions that you make along the way.

It’s your tactics, your team selections, your training methods, your philosophies and your man-management skills which will determine whether you stand or fall in the job. If it doesn’t work out then it’s too easy to blame it all on the players who, let’s not forget, you chose to have inside the dressing room in the first place.

All managers will go through bad times. If you can’t find a way out of those bad times then there is only one solution, you’re out of a job.

So when Les Hutchison said Motherwell’s players should hang their heads in shame that might have made the owner feel better about the decision he took to sack Baraclough but it doesn’t add up as far as I’m concerned.

Remember, I’ve been there before. I was accused of conspiring against Paul le Guen and turning my team-mates against him. When Le Guen left Rangers that old line was being rolled out everywhere you looked: He lost the dressing room.

It was rubbish then and it’s rubbish now. An absolute cop out.

Motherwell's majority shareholder Les Hutchison (Image: SNS Group)

I’ve been open about my relationship with Le Guen. I had no issues with the guy. He just didn’t understand what Rangers is all about, he couldn’t adapt to life at a club where winning every week is the be-all-and-end-all. He just didn’t get it.

At no time did I lead a revolt against him or try to get the rest of the lads to down tools. That’s just ridiculous.

All I did was make it clear inside that dressing room that losing games wasn’t acceptable. And that’s all it took for Le Guen to decide he didn’t want me in his team.

I respected the guy, even when he told me that I was finished at Rangers.

At the time I was boiling and, yes, I wanted to kill him but at the end of the day he was the manager of the football club and as a player you have to respect his decision because he’s the guy in charge.

I had arrived at Murray Park to get ready for a game against Motherwell. Out of the blue, his assistant, Yves Colleu came into the dressing room and told me the manager wanted to see me.

I walked into Le Guen’s office and he told me I wouldn’t be playing at Fir Park and that I would never play for Rangers again. That was it. I did not say a word. To tell you the truth, I was actually stunned. I didn’t know what to say or what to do.

I just walked out of his office, picked my bag up in the dressing room and walked straight to my car.

I drove out of the gates, turned right drove about 400 yards down the road and pulled into the side. That’s when it suddenly hit me.

Now, looking back, the guy was sat there in a rented house with all his belongings still packed in boxes in his garage. He wanted out because he couldn’t cope with the demands. All the other stuff was just excuses.

Fergie is lectured by Le Guen but his lack of passion riled the skipper (Image: SNS Group Bill Murray)

Certainly, at no time did I undermine him. The fact of the matter is the players went out and won that game against Motherwell so there was no evidence at all he had lost the dressing room.

The guys went out and did their jobs as professionals and I’m sure it’ll be a similar story for the players in that Motherwell dressing room today.

They’ll be hurting about what’s happened and, yes, they will feel responsible for the manager losing his job. But not for a single second do I believe they ganged up against him.

There are a lot of really solid pros in that squad. Guys like Stephen McManus, Steve Hammell, Stephen Pearson – a player I rate so highly I tried to sign him for Blackpool – Keith Lasley and Scott McDonald. That’s the spine of a team which should be good enough for the top six of the Premiership, not permanently fighting off relegation.

But, for whatever reason, Baraclough was not playing his best players over the last few weeks.

And that’s the real explanation for what happened on Tuesday night at Cappielow when they crashed out of the cup against Morton and on Wednesday morning when he was told his time was up at Fir Park.

Ultimately, a manager must live or die by the decisions he makes. Blaming it all on losing the dressing room is nothing more than an easy way out.